Whitehouse Investigates Fossil Fuel, Polluter Influence Behind EPA’s Proposed Repeal of Endangerment Finding

EPW Ranking Member raises concerns about the level of involvement from industry groups, which are poised to cash in on a pro-polluter agenda at the expense of American families

Washington, D.C.- Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, launched an investigation into the extent of fossil fuel and related entities' improper influence on the Trump Administration's proposed roll back of the endangerment finding. The repeal, if finalized, would deliver a massive financial windfall to polluting industries and their enablers and advocates while poisoning the air, endangering families, and fast-tracking the catastrophic economic harms from climate change.

The endangerment finding is a 2009 scientific determination by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases are harmful to human health and welfare. It is grounded in extensive peer-reviewed science and confirmed by successive National Climate Assessments and reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Twice, EPA's scientific finding has withstood challenge at the D.C. Circuit, and both times, the Supreme Court declined to revisit the decision. Repealing the endangerment finding would ignore overwhelming scientific evidence and set the stage for rolling back air quality standards for power plants, airplanes, and more, making it easier to pollute.

"If the proposal is finalized, it would hand massive benefits to polluting industry actors and their enablers, allowing them to reap billions in profit while shifting the burdens of climate disasters onto the American families, businesses, and taxpayers. Rescinding the endangerment finding at the behest of industry is irresponsible, legally dubious, and deeply out of step with the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment, and the American public deserves to understand your role in advancing EPA's dangerous decision," wrote Ranking Member Whitehouse.

"I am concerned about the role that fossil fuel companies and polluter-backed groups with much to benefit from the repeal of the endangerment finding … played in drafting, preparing, promoting, and lobbying on the proposal. In the wake of EPA's announcement, various polluting industry organizations and their supporters celebrated the rejection of well-settled science .... Given the billions at stake for polluting industry interests and significant potential conflicts of interest, the public deserves a full accounting of any efforts to influence this decision behind closed doors," continued the Senator.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin based the proposed repeal, in part, on a Department of Energy pseudoscientific report written by known climate deniers with close ties to fossil fuel and polluting industry actors, including some of the subjects of this investigation. Rife with disinformation, cherry-picked statistics, and outright falsities, the report peddles the lie that human-caused climate change is not a threat. Scientists, including those whose work was cited in the report, have vigorously criticized the Trump Administration's many clear errors, cherry-picked data, and misrepresentation of facts. Ranking Member Whitehouse and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, demanded that the "mockery" of a report be "withdrawn in shame" and the proposed repeal of the endangerment finding withdrawn.

EPW has requested documents from the following companies by September 30, 2025: America First Policy Institute, American Petroleum Institute, American Trucking Association, Ballard Partners, BNSF Railway, Boyden Gray, BP, Burke Law Group, Chevron, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Core Natural Resources, Exxon, General Motors, Hallador, Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, Independent Petroleum Association of America, National Association of Manufacturers, National Auto Dealers Association, New Civil Liberties Alliance, Shell, Toyota of America, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Vistra Energy.

The full letters are available here.